MANY POLLING STATIONS TO STAY CLOSED DURING AFGHAN ELECTIONS KYRGYZ SPECIAL FORCES VETERANS PICKET NATIONAL SECURITY BUILDING TBILISI CONDEMNS RUSSIAN-ABKHAZ PASSENGER BOAT SERVICE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN AIRLINES TO SHARE TBILISI-MOSCOW FLIGHTS RALLY IN SOUTHERN KYRGYZSTAN DEMANDS RESIGNATION OF INTERIM GOVT, RETURN OF OSH MAYOR ARMENIA ACCUSES TURKEY OF LACKING POLITICAL WILL TO NORMALIZE RELATIONS Russia, Armenia sign deal on NPP reactor construction AFGHAN POLICEMEN KILLED BY FRIENDLY FIRE AFGHAN POLICE RECRUIT SHOT DEAD AFTER KILLING THREE SPANISH TRAINERS UZBEKISTAN BURNS HALF A TON OF SEIZED AFGHAN HEROIN TURKMENISTAN REMOVES GOLD STATUE OF NIYAZOV FROM ASHGABAT KAZAKHSTAN TO DOUBLE CRUDE OIL EXPORT DUTIES KAZAKHSTAN TO EXTEND ITS GRAIN SALES MARKET AZERBAIJAN TO BUY FOUR KA-32 HELICOPTERS FROM RUSSIA Kabul challenges Pakistan’s ban on Afghan TV channels NATO CHIEF BACKS STARTING SECURITY HANDOVER TO AFGHANS NEXT YEAR TAJIK PARENTS PUNISHED FOR CHILDREN’S TRUANCY
18 September
More than 900 polling stations for Afghanistan's parliamentary elections next month will not open because of security fears. That's according to Fazel Ahmad Manawi, chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission, who today told reporters that 938 polling stations will remain closed "due to security problems during the election." He said those that would not be able to open were spread across 25 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, but mostly in the south and the east, where the Taliban insurgency continues to rage. Despite the presence of around 150,000 foreign troops, violence across Afghanistan has hit its worst levels since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001. (Reuters)
18 August
A group of veteran officers from the Kyrgyz "Alpha" special squad protested in front of the building of the National Security Service on Wednesday, demanding to stop the prosecution of the combatants from this special unit. Seven "Alpha" officers have been charged with killing participants in the April riot in Bishkek, which led to a new government in the country, Kyrgyz law enforcement sources told Interfax. "Seven combatants from the 'Alpha' squad and the commander of this unit are charged with being involved in shooting at peaceful demonstrators on April 7, 2010, which left dozens of people dead and hundreds injured," the sources said.The Alpha servicemen disagree with the charges and claim they were just following the orders of their superiors, the sources said. (Interfax)
18 September
Maritime traffic to ferry passengers from Russia's Black Sea ports to Gagra in breakaway Abkhazia "is an open challenge to the international community and yet another clear demonstration that Russia does not consider itself bound" by international norms, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on August 17. According to the reports by Russian news agencies, hovercraft boats, operated by a Sochi-based firm, launched this month regular traffic carrying passengers between Russia's Black Sea port of Tuapse in north of Sochi and Gagra. The boats make several stops before reaching Gagra, including in Sochi for passport control. Officials in Sokhumi say, that land border crossing facilities with Russia can not properly handle existing volume of traffic during the summer, causing jams at border crossing point "Adler" and the launched maritime traffic is hoped to ease traffic on the land border. The Georgian Foreign Ministry said that by launching maritime traffic with the breakaway region, Russia violates number of international conventions, as well as Georgia's law on occupied territories. It called on the international community to take relevant measures to secure Russia's fulfillment of its international commitments. Maxim Gvinjia, foreign minister of breakaway Abkhazia, told RFE/RL's Russian-language service, Ekho Kavkaza, that the launched maritime traffic aimed at easing ordinary people's transpiration problems. "I don't understand why it causes concern and protest [in Tbilisi], that it is becoming better here - that's terrible," Gvinjia said. (Civil Georgia)
19 September
Georgian and Russian air carriers will start direct Moscow-Tbilisi flights this month with each conducting three flights per week. Georgian Airways will start flights from August 20, the united transport administration at the Georgian ministry of economy said. Russia's Sibir Airlines, operating under the brand name S7 Airlines, will start flights on August 23, the Russian air carrier said on August 18. S7 Airlines said that resumption of flights was made possible after it had received permission from aviation authorities of the two countries. The Georgian united transport administration described the planned flights as "multiple non-regular flights." It said that flight permissions were valid from August till the end of October. Georgian Airways obtained permission to conduct direct Tbilisi-Moscow charter flights for number of times in the past; most recently such flights were conducted by the Georgian Airways in late May and June. Russia cut regular direct air flights with Georgia in October, 2006, following spy row between the two countries. The flights were restored in late March, 2008, but were again suspended after the August war. Before the cut of regular flights, S7 Airlines was also conducting flights between Moscow and Georgia's second largest city Kutaisi, as well as between Moscow and Georgia's Black Sea resort of Batumi. "In case of full-scale resumption of flights between the two countries, S7 Airlines is ready to consider possibility of restarting flights to Kutaisi and Batumi," the company said. (Civil Georgia)
20 August
About 1,000 people are attending a rally on the central square in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, demanding the resignation of Kyrgyzstan's interim government and the return of Osh Mayor Melis Myrzakmatov from the republic's capital Bishkek. The demonstrators are chanting "People Choose Melis!" and "He is a Kyrgyz National Hero!" Myrzakmatov left for Bishkek two days ago to participate in a session addressing programs to rebuild for southern Kyrgyzstan, where violent clashes between the local Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities erupted in June. "We have not chosen Roza Otunbayeva. The interim government must resign. Melis is our protector," several people taking part in the rally said. A group of demonstrators attacked Kyrgyz Minister of Labor, Employment and Migration Aigul Ryskulova, demanding that she support Myrzakmatov. Security guards managed to calm the people down, and Ryskulova left the square safely. Demonstrators also broke a video camera belonging to a journalist. Law enforcement is not present on the square. Journalists whose visit to Osh was arranged by the interim government's press service are currently leaving the city "for security reasons, because tensions are escalating there," the organizers of the trip said. In an interview with Interfax, an aide to Myrzakmatov confirmed that the Osh mayor is in Bishkek, but declined to give further details. (Interfax)
20 August
Armenia has made a lot of effort to normalize relations with Turkey, but Turkey's lack of political will has obstructed this process, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said. "By initiating the process of normalization of relations with Turkey, Armenia invested it with logic of full-scale cooperation and mutually advantageous trade. However, the process has stuck, because the Turkish leadership has not displayed the necessary political will," Sargsyan said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Hill of Honor monument in the town of Gyumri in northern Armenia on Friday. "Unfortunately, we have not seen true preparedness on Ankara's part to honor its international commitments," he said. Armenia announced its withdrawal from a process of settling relations with Turkey and ratifying Armenian-Turkish protocols at the end of April 2010. "High-ranking Turkish officials talked on the language of preconditions for a year. Turkey took a whole year to do anything to mark time and disrupt the process. Hence, our conclusion and our position are unambiguous. Turkey is not willing to continue the process and move ahead without preconditions and in the spirit of the protocols that have been signed," Sargsyan said at the time in an address to the nation. "In our view, all reasonable timeframes have been exhausted," he said. (Interfax)
20 August
Russia and Armenia have signed an agreement on the construction of a new power unit at an Armenian nuclear power plant. The document was signed by Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko in the presence of the two countries' presidents. The construction of a new power unit on the grounds of the operational Armenian nuclear power plant will start in 2012. The project is estimated at approximately $5 billion. The new power unit will have a Russian 1060-megawatt reactor with a 60-year service life and a European safety certificate. The facility is due to be commissioned before 2017. The only power unit with a 404-megawatt capacity operating at the Armenian nuclear power plant, which generates about 40% of the electricity nationwide, is due to be shut down before that. The 'nuclear island' for the new power unit for the Armenian nuclear power plant will be built in Russia within the next few years years, Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisian told journalists on Wednesday. Rosatom chief Sergei Kiriyenko said earlier that Russia plans to not only build the nuclear power plant in Armenia but also be one of its investors. (Interfax)
21 August
NATO says coalition forces have killed three Afghan policemen in a friendly fire incident in northern Afghanistan. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said that Afghan security forces, who were under fire from an unknown number of insurgents, called for air support on August 20 in Jowzjan Province. Two helicopters responded, but an investigation of the site later found that three Afghan policemen were accidentally killed and several wounded by the air weapons team. Also on August 21, six Afghan police officers were found dead in their station house in southern Afghanistan. Provincial spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said the six police, who were shot, were found in Greskh district of Helmand Province. (RFE/RL)
25 August
Afghan security forces have been deployed to quell rioting in the northwestern province of Badghis after a deadly gun battle between a local police recruit and his Spanish instructors. The Spanish government has confirmed that two Spanish police officers and their Spanish interpreter were killed when a rogue police recruit opened fire on them at a provincial-reconstruction team (PRT) police training center in Badghis's provincial capital of Qalay-e Naw. Abdul Ghani Saberi, the deputy governor of Badghis Province, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that the rioting broke out after Spanish troops shot dead the Afghan trainee during the altercation. Saberi said the police "usually train inside the Spanish PRT. One police driver, whose name was Ghullam Sakhi, carried a gun with him into the compound." After arguing with Spanish troops who told him not to bring a gun inside the compound, "he started shooting at the Spanish soldiers -- killing three of them." Saberi said provincial authorities think the recruit might have had ties with the Taliban and intentionally tried to carry a gun into the PRT compound to attack troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Saberi said the authorities suspect Taliban militants who are active in the area may have infiltrated the police force to carry out the initial attack."We think there was a plot behind this incident," Saberi said. "We think the Taliban could be behind this because they are the enemies of the Afghan country and such plots are usually organized by the enemies of stability and peace in Afghanistan." RFE/RL's correspondent in the area, Sharafuddin Stanakzai, reported that angry demonstrators tried to storm the PRT compound after the initial shooting incident. He said that demonstrators on the scene said they broke through the compound's outer perimeter and set fire to part of the base. One witness told RFE/RL that Spanish troops fired on rioters who were storming the base, injuring several of them. However, the Spanish government denied that demonstrators tried to storm the base. Spanish officials said the demonstrators wanted the body of the slain Afghan and that an Afghan judge was allowed to enter the PRT compound in order to authorize the handover of the remains.
There was no immediate confirmation by Afghan or NATO officials about witness claims that the PRT base was infiltrated or that there were more casualties there.However, Saberi confirmed that hundreds of demonstrators later marched on the provincial government's headquarters in Qalay-e Naw -- smashing several windows of the building and forcing local authorities to call for the deployment of troops from the Afghan National Army and national police. (RFE/RL)
26 August
Authorities in Uzbekistan have incinerated nearly a half ton of confiscated Afghan heroin worth an estimated street value of $150 million in Europe. Officials say more than 700 kilograms of illegal drugs, including 497 kilograms of heroin, were burned on August 26 in the smelting furnace of a Soviet-era metals factory outside of Tashkent before an audience of diplomats and journalists. Olimjon Turakulov, a spokesman for Uzbekistan's SNB domestic security services, said the drugs being destroyed had already been used as evidence in trials against drugs traffickers. He said the incinerated drugs represent just part of about 2.5 tons of drugs seized from smugglers coming out of Afghanistan since the start of 2010. (RFE/RL)
26 August
A prominent 12-meter golden statue of Turkmenistan's former dictator Saparmurat Niyazov has been taken down in the capital Ashgabat -- a move further eroding the personality cult around the late Central Asian leader. Workers removed the statue on August 25 and were dismantling the base on August 26. The Arch of Neutrality was a centerpiece of the capital, Ashgabat, and the most distinctive monument built in honor of Niyazov. The statue stood on a 70-meter white tile-clad tripod and rotated to face the sun. Niyazov -- who renamed himself the Great Turkmenbashi, the "Father of All Turkmen" -- died in 2006 after two decades of iron-fisted rule. (RFE/RL)
30 August
Energy-rich Kazakhstan will double its crude export duty tax to 40 dollars (21.60 euros) per tonne next year to boost revenue, the country's finance ministry said on Tuesday. "The most significant budget revenue is planned at the expense of increasing the export duty on oil from 20 dollars to 40 dollars per tonne," Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev said at a cabinet meeting in the capital Astana. Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest oil producer, had introduced the export duty on crude in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis but reduced them to zero in January 2009. The export duty was reintroduced at 20 dollars per tonne in July of 2010. The Chevron-led Tengizchevroil energy venture and Karachaganak Petroleum Operating group, led by energy majors ENI and BG, will not be exempt from the duty. (AFP)
30 September
Kazakhstan will extend the geography of its grain exports due to enforcing of the grain export ban in Russia, announced Asylzhan Mamytbekov, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the "National holding "KazAgro" JSC, on August 27. According to him, the Caucasian countries will become the potential partners of Kazakhstan in the sphere of grain trading, first of all. The volume that the countries previously planned to purchase in Russia, they can purchase on Kazakh market, noted A.Mamytbekov. According to him, the country will probably increase the export volumes on the traditional markets. The Head of the holding noted that despite the fact that the Russian Federation stopped grain supplying on own traditional markets, that does not mean that Kazakhstan should take place of Russia. Last year in Kazakhstan grain production totaled 22.7 mln tonnes in bunker weight, or 20 mln tonnes in clean wight. According to the forecast, in 2010 grain production will total 16 mln tonnes in bunker weight, 14 mln tonnes in clean weight. Previously, it was announced that grain export volumes from Kazakhstan will total 8 mln tonnes, including 4 mln tonnes to the countries of the Middle Asia and Afghanistan, and also 2 mln tonnes to the countries of the South Caucasus, Russia, Iran and other countries. (agrimarket.info)
30 August
Russian Helicopters company will supply four Kamov Ka-32 helicopters to Azerbaijan in the near future, the Azerbaijani APA news agency said on Monday. It is not known which of the country's state departments or institutions ordered the helicopters, the report said. In May, the Azerbaijan Emergencies Ministry bought two Ka-32 helicopters from Russia. The Ka-32 is a 12-ton coaxial twin-rotor helicopter that can carry a payload of up to four tons. It is commonly used in utility cargo work and fire-fighting, has an endurance of about four hours and cruises at 205 kilometers per hour. (RIA Novosti)
31 August
Afghanistan's Minister of Culture and Information has criticized a recent ban imposed on Afghan TV channels by Pakistan's government, saying it does not benefit either country. Talking to RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan by telephone, Sayed Makhdoom Raheen said that he will directly discuss this issue with Pakistani officials and ask them to reopen the TV channels as soon as possible to Pakistani viewers. Pakistan's Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) on August 29 blocked nearly 28 foreign TV channels, including several Afghan TV channels, from being broadcast by cable operators in Pakistan. Asked if he would take similar action in response to the ban, Raheen replied that "Afghanistan's policy is to open, not to close down TV channels." "They have closed our TV channels in Pakistan, but we do not do the same in Afghanistan," he added. Raheen emphasized that the regional countries should try their best "to build closer ties through each other media outlets." RFE/RL's correspondent in the Pakistani city of Quetta reports that most Afghan refugees in Pakistan are interested in Afghan TV channels that offer news and recreational programs. The channels enjoy some popularity among Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan. Twenty-year-old Ehsanullah, an Afghan University Student in Quetta, told RFE/RL that he hoped Pakistan would reopen the banned channels. Noor Agha, another Afghan refugee in Quetta, said that such television channels as Ariana, Shamshad, and Lemar have been major sources for Afghans in Pakistan's north-west to get information about news and events back home. Osman Kakar, the Leader of the Awami National Party in Pakistan's Khybar Pakhtunkhwa province, condemned the ban and called on the Pakistani government to reopen the channels. The Afghan channels have been banned in Pakistan in the past, but the bans were lifted later after protests by Afghans living in Pakistan. (RFE/RL)
31 August
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says he hopes NATO member states will agree at an upcoming summit to start handing over security responsibilities in Afghanistan to Afghan authorities next year. The NATO chief's comments came on August 30, as the deaths of four more NATO soldiers were reported due to fighting in Afghanistan. The alliance said four U.S. troops were killed in a Taliban-style bomb attack -- raising to 21 the number of Americans killed in the past three days, according to the AFP news agency. The alliance said an eighth NATO soldier, who was not American, was also killed the same day in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan.
Canada, meanwhile, said one of its soldiers had died in the hospital after suffering injuries in a bomb attack in Afghanistan on August 22. In his interview with Danish television, the NATO chief said the security situation in Afghanistan was "definitely" not satisfactory. But he said there had been some progress in security, and that he hoped NATO members would agree at a November summit in Lisbon to begin gradually handing over security responsibilities in 2011. Rasmussen added that he supported the intensification of the military campaign against Taliban strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, saying the Taliban had no chance of defeating NATO forces on a military level. But he said the Afghan conflict couldn't be won by military means alone, as building stability will depend on educational, health, and economic advances as well. (RFE/RL)
31 September
AZERBAIJAN, KARABAKH TRADE BLAME OVER DEADLY CLASH
1 September
Azerbaijan and the rebel mountain region of Nagorno-Karabakh traded blame for a deadly clash on their frontline on Tuesday in which Azerbaijan said two of its soldiers had died. Skirmishes break out frequently between Azeri and Armenian-backed forces near Nagorno-Karabakh, a small mountain region where ethnic Armenians threw off Azeri rule at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The unresolved conflict is a constant threat to stability in the strategic South Caucasus, sandwiched between Russia, Turkey and Iran and criss-crossed by pipelines carrying oil and gas to Europe, much of it from Azeri reserves in the Caspian Sea. The Azeri Defence Ministry said in a statement that two Azeri soldiers and three Armenians were killed when Azeri security forces repelled an enemy assault near the village of Chaili on Nagorno-Karabakh's northeastern flank. Karabakh authorities blamed an attack by an Azeri "special forces group", Armenian agencies reported. Just one Armenian Karabakh soldier was wounded and the Azeri forces "suffered losses", the Karabakh military said. The accounts could not be independently verified as international observers only carry out periodic monitoring of the frontline. The clash follows conflicting reports about an Azeri soldier who Azerbaijan says was captured this week by Armenian forces. The Karabakh authorities say he deserted. An estimated 30,000 people died in the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke out in the late 1980s as the Soviet Union headed towards its collapse and ended with a ceasefire in 1994. Armenian forces captured seven surrounding Azeri districts, forming a corridor linking the region with Armenia. Years of talks, mediated by the United States, Russia and France, have yet to yield a peace deal. (Reuters)